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After coming to Chennai for a long leave, I am finding it very difficult to blog. Running behind my son keeps me so engaged, and I forget the total world. I went for a nice shopping in T Nagar twice, for Pongal purchase. Its always been a pleasure for me to shop here and so convenient for me, as i know every corner of this place. OK lets see whats cooking in my kitchen.

Cut the drumstick, onion and tomato. Grind the coconut to a smooth paste and the paste should be very thick.In the kadai, season the kulambu with mustard and urad dhal.Add the onion, tomato, drumstick and saute well.Add 2 cup of water and add the sambar powder, turmeric and salt.Once the drumstick is cooked well, add the coconut paste and cook it for 5 more mins.You have it with rice and pappad.We can use Avarakkai(Cluster Beans) instead of Drumstick. The taste will be yummy and its so simple to cook as it can be made within minutes and less labor.

This is also one more stolen recipe from my granny's kitchen. Very simple, easy and quick to prepare at the same time healthwise good as we are just baking it. The taste will be delicious and very good for kids.

Ingredients:

Par Boiled Rice (Idly Rice) - 1 cup

Onion - 2

Green Chillies - 3

Red Chillies - 3

Curry Leaves and Coriander Leaves

Mustard Seeds - 1 tsp

Urad Dhal (split ones) - 1 tsp

Bengal Gram Dhal - 1 tsp

Aesfoetida - 1 pinch

Method:

Soak the rice for an hour and grind it to a smooth paste.

In a kadai, add 1 tsp of cooking oil and add the seasoning items mentioned.

Add the onion and chillies and saute well till the raw smell goes off.

Add the ground batter and mix well. Switch off the stove once you get a chappathi dough consistency.

This is also one very simple and easy to prepare recipes. Actually its a true recipe from Kerela, but almost all tamilians will prepare it (anyway in their own form). This is truly a healthy recipe which includes all the possible veggies and taste will be heaven. You can have it as a side dish for sambar or curd rice, or also as a main dish and also as a sidedish with Adai. This is good dish which can be served for children or elders.

To this you can add any vegetable in this world. Only suggestion is don't add any veg which may change the color of the dish (Ex: Beetroot) or texture of the dish (Ex: Lady's finger). Also you should be aware of the cooking time required for each veggie. For example, Capsicum will cook very fast when compared to Elephant Yam. Accordingly you should add them while cooking. I think I am explaining too much...lets get rid of advices and go to the kitchen.

Ingredients:

Vegetables - Yam, Vazhaikkai, Colaesia, Beans, Carrot, Potato, Cauliflower, Green Peas, Brinjal, Cluster Beans, Chaote, Turnip, onion and tomato. This is what I had that time. I didn't get Drumstick that time. So didn't add, felt bad for that.

Coconut - 5 tbsp

Green Chillies - 5 (Depends on how spicy you want)

Cumin Seeds - 1 tsp

Coconut Oil - 1 tbsp (optional)

Curd - 1/2 cup

Firstly wash and cut all the vegetables you have. You can also add peas, mochai and double beans. Cook all these vegetables in a pan in 1 glass of water, turmeric(1/2 tsp) and salt.

If you add Drumstick, it will give a good flavour but add it at the last. Cook the Yam separately for 5 mins and add it at last.

All the vegetables should be cooked well, yet they should be firm.

Grind together coconut, cumin seeds and green chillies to a smooth paste. Add the ground paste to the cooked vegetables and cook for 5 more mins.

Switch off the stove and add curd stir well and then add the coconut oil. If you don't like it you can skip the coconut oil also.

That's all its done. Serve it in a plantain leaf with rice, sambar and curry for a grand treat.

Yesterday we celebratedKarthigaiDeepam at home. Lord Murugan was born in this month and the whole of this we will be lighting lamps(AgalVilakku) at home and yesterday is Thirukarthigai, for which we will decorate the house with many lamps. In the evening a Jyothi called "AnnamalaiJyothi" will be lighted at Thiruvannamalai, which we never miss to watch it in TV. It wil very tough to go to Thiruvannamalai during this day, as the town will be loaded with crores of people from the entire Tamilnadu.

A small story is associated with this: Once Brahma and Vishnu had a conflict on who is having more power. At that time Lord Shiva appeared infront of them in the form of a Jyothi and asked them to find the start and end of his form. Brahma went in search of his start, in the form of a swan and Vishnu went in Search of Shiva's End in the form of a Pig. Both of them couldn't succeed in their attempts and Lord shiva appeared as a jyothi in Thiruvannamalai hill.

Hence in this day, we were lighting so many lamps to appreciate Lord Shiva's Presence in all the homes. Here is a small view on my decoration on lamps

On this day we will fast from the morning and prepare the food in the evening. After completing the pooja and offerings to GOD, we will see the lamps glowing and then only we will have our food. On this special occasion the food also will so special. I prepared SakkaraiPongal, Aviyal, AvarakkaiSambar, VazhakkaiVaruval, Rasam and Pappads.

Here I will Share the recipe for SakkaraiPongal.

Ingredients:

Raw Rice - 1 cup

MoongDhal - 1/4 cup

Milk - 1 tbsp

Ghee - 2 tbsp

Jaggery - 1 cup

Coconut - 1 tbsp

Cashew and Kismis - few

Elachi Powder - 1 pinch

Method:

Pressure cook the rice and dhal. Once the pressure is released mash it well by adding milk and 1 tbsp of ghee.

Mix the jaggery in 1 cup of water and heat it till 1 line consistency. Filter it to remove any iron or mud particles. Add this filtered jaggery syrup to the mashed pongal and mix well uniformly.

Roast the coconut in ghee and keep it aside. Then roast the cashew and kismis in ghee. Add all these things to the pongal.

I am not a die hard fan of appam. Still its my husband's favourite, hence I just gave a try with my mother in law's guidance. It came out pretty well. Its so good for health, as it is a very light food and easy for digestion. Moreover we will take it with Coconut milk which inturn will cure any stomach ulcer.

Whenever my mom prepare it at home, I will have one or two appams with so many comments

(negative alone) on my mom's preparation and will be teasing her by giving suggestions to

improve her cooking. My mom will be irritated with mine and my sister's comments and we

will be happy on that. Its not the case with appam alone, but with all her cooking. She is an excellent cook, but we have never admitted the fact. Why I am telling this story is... when I entered into kitchen, cooking for someone else, and when I received the same teasers, I am realizing how it would have been for my Mom. This time I have made so much of effort to get this appam done. Hence when my effort was teased, I felt its "a ball bouncing back". Its all a fun filled pack of our lives. Ok lets get into the recipe for Appam.

Ingredients:

Raw rice - 2 cup

Par boiled Rice - 1/4

Urad Dhal - 1/4 cup

Aval - 1/2 cup

Coconut milk - 1/4 cup

Soak all the rice and dhal together in water for 4 hrs. Soak the aval seperately for 1/2 hr. Aval should not be soaked long.

Grind all the soaked ingredients together to a smooth paste.

Transfer the contents to a bowl, add salt and mix well. Close it with a lid and allow it to ferment for a 8 hrs atleast (it again depends on the temperature around)

Run the empty grinder with the leftover batter by adding one cup of water. Take that water mixed with batter and allow it to ferment seperately.

After fermenting, you can see the batter rise up to a level above. In this stage you add the coconut milk, the fermented water and mix well uniformly.

In the Appam kadai, pour one laddle of batter and rotate the kadai, so that the batter spreads through the kadai evenly.

The bottom most portion of the appam should be thick (like idly) and above portion should be crisp enough (like dosa).

Thats it, our appam is done and it can be served hot with coconut milk and/or with any kurma. This time I prepared a plain onion kurma along with coconut milk.

I didnt take the snaps for the batter preparation, fermentation and all, as I didnt have much faith on the outcome. It came out well, hence displaying the final output alone.

A very simple dish from me. I love this veggie from my childhood, thats why may be I am so intellect ( ;) LOL). I will buy this vegetable only when it is so tender, there will be no compromise on this. This time I got a good tender vendaikkai, hence I thought of posting this fry.

Ingredients:

Okra - 500 gms

Curd - 2 tbsp

Chilly Powder - 1 tbsp

Coriander Powder - 2 tbsp

Salt to taste

Method:

Wash the Okra and clean it with a towel to remove the water.

Cut it into small pieces, mix it with chilly and coriander powder and marinate it dry for half an hour.

In the kadai add 1 tbsp oil and season it with mustard seeds and urad dhal. Then add the marinated okra.

Saute once and then add the curd. The okra will stick to each other once we start frying, so inorder to seperate them we are using curd.

Dont add any water and close it with a lid. Okra will get cooked in that moisture itself.

Saute well often so that it will not stick to the kadai. After switching off the stove, you add the salt and mix well, so that the salt spreads everywhere. For a better fry, add the salt at the end.

After the long trip for my sons birthday celebrations, I am back to work. Hence a long gap in updating the posts. The celebrations went well, slightly spoilt by the heavy rains in chennai during that time. My work is too heavy nowadays, thats all due to the fall back in the IT industry. Whatever may be, life has to go on. Ok here comes the recipe for Green Peas mushroom pulao.

Ingredients:

Basmati Rice - 2 cups

Green Peas - 1 cup

Mushroom(Minced) - 200 gms

Onion (Big) - 1 minced.

Green Chillies - 2 slightly cut in the middle.

Cinnamon - 2

Clove - 2

Bay leaf - 1 (I don't like it so i didn't add it. If you like, you can add it)